With this adaptation I have taken a double liberty. The first, the adaptation itself, I feel is excused by the second, a presumption that Andersen’s intentions when he wrote The Little Match Girl in 1845 mirrored mine when I adapted it in 2008. My intentions were, as they still are, to insert a pause into the robotic excesses of the season, and inspire a thought for those whose circumstances give them little reason to celebrate. More often than not it is the combination of circumstance that results in people being homeless and living on the streets. Seeing someone sleeping rough on a wet and wintry night quickly exposes that lie dished up by one hypocritical politician after another, that such a life is a lifestyle choice made through laziness.

The story is free. Should it move you, let that movement flow into some concrete action. Every one of us can do something to make a positive difference.